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Friday, August 15, 2008

Jack A. Weil, founder and CEO of Rockmount Ranch Wear died on August 13 at the age of 107 in Denver, Colorado. He was the oldest working CEO in the United States. He was also known as “Papa Jack”.

He was born on March 28, 1901 in Evansville, Indiana. In 1946, Weil rented a space at 1626 Wazee Street in Denver and set about trying to create a fashionable yet practical identity for the western ranchers of the region.

Weil was well-known for coining the phrase “The West is not a place, it is a state of mind.” He was the first person to put snaps on Western shirts, patented the saw-tooth pocket design seen on many Western shirts, and was credited with inventing the bolo tie.

In 2001, he told Associated Press, “I learned fast you can’t sell to cowboys; they have no money. You have to appeal to the cowboy in everyone and sell to them.”

Among his customers were Ronald Reagan, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and Nicholas Cage. More recently, Rockmount shirts were worn by the late Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in the 2005 Academy Award-nominated movie, Brokeback Mountain.

Weil’s wife, Beatrice Baum, died in 1990, followed by his son Jack B. in January 2008.

“I never wanted to be the richest man in the cemetery,” he told his grandson and current president of the family business.

Friday, April 8, 2005

In a document dated March 30, 2005 by a group calling itself “the 70 million people of Iran,” a declaration was issued asking the current government of The Islamic Republic of Iran to “…peacefully surrender the power to its rightful owners…” by June 16 of this year. The group’s relationship to political parties in Iran is not known.

The document addresses the Supreme Leader Khamenei, Chairman Akbar Rafsanjani of the Expediency Council, and President Khatami, and enumerates the group’s grievances against the regime. It threatens boycotts and blackouts throughout Iran on June 10 if there are no indications the regime intends to comply with its demands. Copies of the document have been furnished to the leaders of the EU, Russia, Japan and the United States.

The group alleges that elections that regularly take place in Iran are biased:, writing “Your own meaningless and rigged elections will be your undoing,” but does not seem to propose constitutional changes. It uses words suggesting they plan to use violence, including extrajudicial execution, against the reformist president Mohammad Khatami and against the conservatives who dominate parliament: “Beginning on June 18 and every day thereafter, we shall strike like a furious flood to cleanse our nation from your filthy existence. …if you have been so foolish to stay behind, you will experience our rage. Retribution will be swift for those who stay behind and stand in our way.”

A separate document to the leaders of the G8 nations asks for their support, and promises armed resistance to the current government of Iran on June 18, 2005 if peaceful remonstrances fail to have their intended effect.

The source for the translation and dissemination of the documents into English, French and German calls itself the Iran of Tomorrow Movement (IOTM), an exile group operating from Encino, California in the United States. The group claims there are “2,195 resistance cells” operating in Iran and abroad.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Ian Narev, the CEO of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, this morning “unreservedly” apologised to clients who lost money in a scandal involving the bank’s financial planning services arm.

Last week, a Senate enquiry found financial advisers from the Commonwealth Bank had made high-risk investments of clients’ money without the clients’ permission, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars lost. The Senate enquiry called for a Royal Commission into the bank, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Mr Narev stated the bank’s performance in providing financial advice was “unacceptable”, and the bank was launching a scheme to compensate clients who lost money due to the planners’ actions.

In a statement Mr Narev said, “Poor advice provided by some of our advisers between 2003 and 2012 caused financial loss and distress and I am truly sorry for that. […] There have been changes in management, structure and culture. We have also invested in new systems, implemented new processes, enhanced adviser supervision and improved training.”

An investigation by Fairfax Media instigated the Senate inquiry into the Commonwealth Bank’s financial planning division and ASIC.

Whistleblower Jeff Morris, who reported the misconduct of the bank to ASIC six years ago, said in an article for The Sydney Morning Herald that neither the bank nor ASIC should be in control of the compensation program.

Monday, May 23, 2016

In the German DFB-Pokal final, on Saturday, Munich-based football club FC Bayern Munich defeated rivals Borussia Dortmund 4–3 in a penalty shoot-out decider as the match ended 0–0 after 120 minutes at Olympiastadion in Berlin. This marked the third consecutive loss for Dortmund in the German Cup final. This was the eighteenth German Cup win for Bayern and eleventh domestic double.

Bundesliga winners Bayern Munich had 70% ball possession in the game and had seventeen shots while Dortmund hit just nine. With a total of seven yellow cards shown in 120 minutes, 35 fouls were committed.

Dominating Bayern faced a shot from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang which was saved in the 85th minute. Erik Durm’s sliding tackle saved a goal for Robert Lewandowski’s shot in the fourth minute of the extra time.

As normal time ended goal-less, the match progressed to additional time. Roman Bürki delayed the Bavarian victory by disallowing Douglas Costa’s 113th minute shot as well as David Alaba’s shot in the next minute.

In the penalty shootout, Manuel Neuer saved Sven Bender’s spot kick, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos missed while Joshua Kimmich failed to score for Munich.

In the end, Munich won the cup defeating their rivals 4–3 on penalties. This match was the last match for Dortmund for their captain Mats Hummels as he is due to move to Munich next week.

In a pre-match conference, Thomas Tuchel, Borussia Manager, said, “Once you’ve reached five finals over the course of five years, simply reaching the final is no longer enough!” ^{((de)) German Language: Wenn man fünf Mal in fünf Jahren in einem Endspiel steht, ist eine Final-Teilnahme nicht mehr genug!}

Dortmund has won the DFB-Pokal three times. Including the 2012, 2014 and 2015 DFB-Pokal finals they have featured in five finals in the last five seasons in various competitions including the 2013 UEFA Champions League Der Klassiker final. This was Pep Guardiola’s seventh trophy with Bayern Munich in his three years as the club manager. He won the Bundesliga title each season and he is set to join Manchester City next season.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

In the centre of the English city of Birmingham, three vehicles collided and eight people are reported injured. The crash was on the Aston Expressway; of the eight injured two are said to be in a serious condition. No fatalities have been reported.

The two people most seriously injured are both female, one in her 30s and the other an elderly woman. Both women had to be freed from the vehicle they were in when the crash occurred at approximately 1845 UTC yesterday. According to a spokeswoman for West Midlands Ambulance Service: “The elderly woman sustained chest and abdominal injuries and the woman in her 30s suffered head and pelvic injuries in the crash.” Both were transported to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham by ambulance.

Meanwhile, two women in another car also had to be freed from the vehicle they were in. One of them was injured in the shoulder while the other female’s collar bone was fractured. “Both were immobilised with neck collars and spinal boards before being conveyed by land ambulance to City Hospital,” according to the ambulance service spokeswoman. Two males in the same vehicle were also taken to City Hospital, Birmingham, having experienced minor injuries.

A man and a woman travelling in a separate vehicle managed to escape serious injury in what the ambulance spokewoman called a “significant collision”. They were taken to Heartlands Hospital by ambulance.

Friday, February 9, 2007

Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally has reported that Ford will rename the Ford Five Hundred to the Taurus for the 2008 model year, when a facelifted model is expected to be launched to improve the lackluster sales of the outgoing model. Mulally says that Ford’s decision to name all their cars with the letter F was a lackluster move, and makes their names easily forgettable. As a result, Mulally plans on reviving many respected Ford nameplates, the Taurus being one of them, and the Falcon possibly in the future.

The Ford Taurus was originally introduced in 1986, and was a revolutionary car that rewrote the rules for creating a sedan, and pushed the other American automakers to follow suit, leading to a design revolution that completely rid Detroit of the “boxy” cars of the 70s and 80s. The Taurus survived for four generations, selling over 7,500,000 units. The Taurus was discontinued in October 2006, after a brief run of 2007 models destined for fleet customers.

“How can it go away?” Alan Mulally remembered asking, “It’s the best-selling car in America.”

While it is not expected for the name change to turn the Five Hundred into a 400,000 plus units a year blockbuster like the Taurus, it is expected to make sales more solid, and to make the car well known, since the Taurus is a well known nameplate around the country.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005

NASA‘s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the latest robotic spacecraft destined for Mars, arrived at Kennedy Space Center‘s Shuttle Landing Facility on April 30 aboard a C-17 cargo plane and was delivered to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility to begin processing. Launching is scheduled for August 10, 2005.

With a mission time line through 2010, the MRO will conduct studies of the Martian atmosphere, surface and subsurface in far greater detail than previous missions. Possible landing sites for future Mars landings will be evaluated and the orbiter will also act as a high-data-rate communications relay for surface missions.

“Great work by a talented team has brought Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to this milestone in our progress toward a successful mission,” said Jim Graf of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) project manager for the mission.

Multiple mechanical assembly operations and electrical tests are scheduled to verify the craft’s readiness for launch. A May test to verify communication abilities through NASA’s Deep Space Network will be conducted and in June deployment of the high gain communications antenna will be tested. A deployment test is also scheduled for the Orbiter’s large solar arrays.

The MRO will be filled with hydrazine fuel in July for its “Mars orbit insertion burn” which reduces the craft’s velocity and places it in orbit about the red planet. July 26 will see the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter installed in an Atlas V rocket fairing for final assembly with the rocket on July 29.

After the scheduled launch, the MRO will spend seven months cruising to Mars and another six months aerobraking after orbital insertion. A variety of scientific instruments on board will be used to search for geological evidence of past seas, ancient shorelines. The craft was built near Denver by Lockheed Martin Space Systems which also supplies the Atlas V launch vehicle.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project. International Launch Services, a Lockheed Martin joint venture, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems are providing launch services for the mission.

More information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is available at: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter website